Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2: Windows 8 Slate Review

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Introduction and Specifications

Lenovo's first ThinkPad tablet was a bit of a disappointment to be candid. Even the best Android Honeycomb tablets were severely lacking on a number of fronts, back in the day. What was the use of a business tablet that couldn't run business apps? Well, forget all that. The ThinkPad Tablet 2 is a real business tablet, and one that actually feels like a ThinkPad--albeit one that has a detachable keyboard. It runs Windows; not Windows RT, not Android, not Windows XP, but real Windows 8 (or Windows 8 Pro). It has a gorgeous 10.1-inch 1366x768 LED IPS multitouch screen, an optional active digitizer stylus, optional mobile broadband, and ThinkPad good looks (if you're into that). Its optional keyboard dock is not really a dock and not really optional, but we'll get to that in just a bit.

The ThinkPad Tablet 2's Atom Z2760 processor is dual-core and hyper-threaded, but it's still an Atom processor. Add in just 2GB of DDR2LP (low-powered) at 800MHz and it's obvious this computer isn't going to be breaking any land speed records--not while running desktop Windows. But the purpose of Atom is not to be the fastest; the purpose of Atom is to be good enough to run Windows while sipping power. If you want fast, get a Core processor. The ThinkPad Tablet 2 isn't supposed to be a speed demon; it's supposed to be a tablet for business users, one with an emphasis on productivity--and with the keyboard dock, it's obvious that's not just lip service.

We'll go in-depth on the ThinkPad Tablet 2's design, user experience, and performance over the next few pages, but first, here's Dave's video review of the ThinkPad Tablet 2 in action:

So, the ThinkPad Tablet 2 is a tablet that thinks it's a ThinkPad laptop. Is it good enough to be a ThinkPad? Is it even good enough to be a good tablet? Let's find out...